Election Integrity and Our Democracy

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Pitt students representing all political leanings and all levels of political involvement identified concerns with democracy as the single most important societal issue in the most recent All Angles survey of student interests. Ongoing national discord produced by the 2020 Presidential Election almost certainly was a major contributor to that ranking, which would have been very surprising not many years ago. 

Voting has long been recognized as both a right and a responsibility of citizenship. Elections provide citizens with the opportunity to participate in the selection of government leaders.  They also provide citizens with a means to support principles and advance policies that they consider to be important. 

The strength of our democracy is closely tied to three key factors: the operational integrity of our elections, equal access to the ballot, and the degree to which there is trust in election outcomes.   Both the peaceful transfer of power and the ability of a democratic government to function effectively between elections are tied directly to these factors. 

Today, however, we see strong expressions of disagreement regarding the best ways to conduct elections so that our democratic traditions are respected and preserved.  To give one example, the interest in promoting ballot access often is pitted against the interest in election security.  Two key questions, then, are: 
(1) whether these interests really are as incompatible as is sometimes portrayed or whether competing positions are principally the product of partisan agendas that have been given priority over democratic values, and (2) if some balancing of interests is required, how do we, as the world’s leading democracy, press forward to reach common ground?

Traditionally, disagreements in a democracy are resolved though civil discussion and respectful debate, and the All Angles program was created to provide Pitt students with direct exposure to civil discussion, which many might say has become an “abandoned art” in modern American politics. 

At 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 12, 2023, in the Connolly Ballroom of Alumni Hall, Pitt students will have the opportunity to observe a civil and serious discussion of these critical issues with two of the nation’s most influential experts on the subject of elections.  Sean Morales-Doyle is Director of the Voting Rights Program of the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, and Hans von Spakovsky is Manager of the Election Reform Initiative and a Senior Legal Fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation.  Chancellor Emeritus and Institute of Politics Chair Mark Nordenberg, who chaired the 2021 Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Commission, will moderate this session.

Seats are limited, so early registration is encouraged. Refreshments will be provided.

Welcome & Guiding Principles: 4:00 – 4:10 p.m. Samantha Balbier, Director Institute of Politics

Introduction: 4:10 – 4:20 p.m. Mark Nordenberg

Opening Remarks: 4:20 – 4:40 p.m. Sean Morales-Doyle, Brennan Center for Justice and Hans von Spakovsky, The Heritage Foundation

Moderated Discussion / Audience Q & A: 4:40 – 5:40 p.m.

Concluding Comments: 5:40 – 5:50 p.m.
 

Featured Speakers

Sean Morales-Doyle
Director, Voting Rights
Brennan Center for Justice

Sean Morales-Doyle serves as director of the Brennan Center Voting Rights Program. He advocates for pro-voter reforms like automatic voter registration and voting rights restoration while fighting back against voter suppression efforts in the courts. Morales-Doyle is a seasoned litigator with experience in civil rights and constitutional matters, as well as a background in labor and employment law.

Prior to joining the Brennan Center, Morales-Doyle was a shareholder at Despres, Schwartz & Geoghegan, Ltd., in Chicago. He litigated all manner of civil rights and constitutional matters and represented workers and unions in a wide variety of labor and employment cases.

Morales-Doyle earned both his undergraduate and law degrees from Northwestern University. After law school, he served as an assistant attorney general for the State of Illinois in the Special Litigation Bureau, where he investigated and litigated cases involving consumer fraud and false claims. He then served as a law clerk to Hon. William J. Hibbler of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Hans A. von Spakovsky
Manager, Election Law Reform Initiative and Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies
The Heritage Foundation

Hans von Spakovsky is an authority on a wide range of issues—including civil rights, civil justice, the First Amendment, immigration, the rule of law, and government reform—as a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.

As manager of the think tank’s Election Law Reform Initiative, von Spakovsky also studies and writes about campaign finance restrictions, voter fraud and voter ID, enforcement of federal voting rights laws, administration of elections and voting equipment standards. 

Heritage’s election reform project examines not only how to protect the integrity of campaigns and elections but to achieve greater fairness and security. “In an era of razor-thin election margins, these issues are vital to the preservation of our republican form of government and the rule of law,” von Spakovsky says.

Previously, as manager of the think tank’s Civil Justice Reform Initiative, von Spakovsky studied how plaintiffs’ attorneys and activists attempt to manipulate the courts for their own ends—at the expense of the public.

He is the co-author with John Fund of the book “Who’s Counting?: How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk” (Encounter Books, 2012), “Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department” (HarperCollins/Broadside June 2014), and “Our Broken Elections: How the Left Changed the Way You Vote” (Encounter Books, Nov. 2021).

President Donald Trump appointed von Spakovsky to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in 2017. 

Before joining Heritage in 2008, von Spakovsky served two years as a member of the Federal Election Commission, the authority charged with enforcing campaign finance laws for congressional and presidential elections, including public funding.

Previously, von Spakovsky worked at the Justice Department as counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, providing expertise in enforcing the Voting Rights Act and the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

A former litigator, in-house counsel and senior corporate officer in the insurance industry, von Spakovsky worked on tort reform and civil justice issues there for more than a decade.

He has served on the Board of Advisors of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and on the Fulton County (Ga.) Board of Registrations and Elections. He is a former vice chairman of the Fairfax County (Va.) Electoral Board and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Board to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He currently serves on the Board of the Public Interest Legal Foundation.

His analysis and commentary have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Hill and USA Today, as well as such outlets as National Review Online and Fox News. His series for PJ Media, “Every Single One,” was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He appears regularly on Fox News Channel and on other national and regional TV and radio news outlets.

He has testified before state and congressional committees and made presentations to, among other organizations, the National Association of Secretaries of State, the Federalist Society, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the American Legislative Exchange Council. He also has taught as an adjunct professor at the George Mason University School of Law.

A 1984 graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Law, von Spakovsky received a bachelor's degree in 1981 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He currently resides in Vienna, Va.

Moderator

Mark A. Nordenberg
Chancellor Emeritus
Chair, Institute of Politics
Director, Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law & Public Policy
University of Pittsburgh

In a University of Pittsburgh career now spanning more than forty-five years, Mark Nordenberg has held a succession of key leadership positions, including Dean of the School of Law and Chancellor of the University. During his nearly two decades of service as its Chancellor, Pitt achieved dramatically higher levels of quality and impact on virtually every front.  During that same period, the higher education and healthcare sector played a critical role in the rebirth of the regional economy.

Nordenberg currently serves as Chair of Pitt’s Institute of Politics and Director of its Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law & Public Policy and holds the special faculty rank of Distinguished Service Professor of Law. For more than thirty years, Pitt’s Institute of Politics has facilitated searches for common ground by providing a non-partisan forum for elected officials and other civic leaders to address policy issues of importance to Western Pennsylvania.  The Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law & Public Policy – named in honor of the former two-term Pennsylvania Governor, U.S. Attorney General under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush, and United Nations Undersecretary General -- offers public programming on important global, national, and regional policy issues. The Institute also includes the Elsie Hillman Civic Forum, which is named after the beloved and highly respected civic leader and philanthropist, and which sponsors programs designed to nurture a commitment to civic engagement in Pitt students.

Following the 2020 census, Nordenberg was appointed chair of the state’s legislative reapportionment commission. The redistricting plan developed through that work was approved by a 4 to 1 bipartisan vote in the commission itself and unanimously affirmed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In the aftermath of the deadly attack at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, Nordenberg became deeply involved in anti-hate work and is the founding co-chair of the Eradicate Hate Global Summit, which already is recognized as the most comprehensive anti-hate conference in the world.

Click here to view Mark's full bio.